Sound Of Barra Integrated Transport Project

 

Introduction

The Sound of Barra Integrated Transport project links Eriskay to South Uist with a 1.6 kilometre causeway and provides two ferry terminals, one on Eriskay and the other on Barra, for a vehicle ferry service.

These provide the final links in the chain for the Western Isles Spinal Route, an aspiration which has been progressing towards fulfilment for almost 60 years since the first inter-island link, a bridge between Benbecula and South Uist, was constructed.

Over the years before that, the main transport links were by sea, with only a limited number of tracks and roads, and many islands were isolated for months on end in poor weather. Many outlying islands have lost their people over the past 150 years as the difficulties of living in isolation from the rest of the world grew - but after the creation of the separate council for the Western Isles (Comhairle nan Eilean Siar) in 1975, there was a growing and direct commitment to save the remaining islands.

In the previous five years, both Scarp and Taransay had lost their final inhabitants and a few other small islands were to follow. Eriskay's population fell by 70 per cent over the last 70 years ­ and restrictions on ferry services imposed by tides and sandbanks left the island isolated for many hours every day.

This caused enormous problems for pupils coming to and from school, for doctors and other services, and, for instance, made it impossible for islanders to attend parents evenings at the main school in Benbecula because they would have to stay overnight.

Now the causeway has ended all that and plays a major role in the economic and social regeneration of this part of the Western Isles.

When British Prime Minister Tony Blair stood with his wife Cherie and Mr Donald Dewar, then Secretary of State for Scotland, on the Scalpay Bridge in 1998, he was not only making the first official visit by a serving British Prime Minister to the Western Isles, he was also taking part in a long process of development on the Islands.

The expected completion and final opening of the Eriskay Causeway in 2002 will mark another major step in a process of construction which began nearly 60 years ago. Where the rest of Britain has built motorways and bypasses to supplement existing roads, the islands of the Outer Hebrides have faced the challenge of putting in roads where none existed before, to replace the sea transport that dominated past eras.

Benefits of the Causeway

Electricity: The Eriskay causeway carries a new electricity cable. This replaced the two submarine cables previously in use. During the early stages of the causeway construction one of the cables was taken out of use because the causeway crossed over it - and winter back-up for Eriskay was provided by a generator on the island itself.

Water: The causeway also carries a new water main. Work also needed to be done on the Uist shore to connect it to the mains supply. Eriskay has been dependent on a local tank and purifying system for its water.

Walkway: There is no walkway over the causeway and there are cattlegrids to control the movement of animals. However, the precautions taken around the Berneray causeway to stop rabbits from reaching that offshore island are unnecessary for Eriskay as there is no comparable threat to machair land.

Telephone: There was no need for a telephone link across the causeway as communications are already by microwave.

Access: The causeway solved major problems of access to Eriskay for large vehicles - problems which affected the work on the causeway and ferry port project. Although the biggest construction vehicles could be brought from the mainland by standard car ferry to Lochboisdale, a huge barge had to be brought over from the mainland just to move them to Eriskay as required.